Yogadad Unmoored

It's Friday morning, a bit before 9:00. I have about an hour to kill before I need to check out of the hotel and catch the train back to the Bangkok airport. If all goes well, there will be transportation waiting for me to get to my hotel in Bangkok. If not, I guess I'll need to resort to Plan B. Which I'll need to figure out. Seems like I've had lots of "Plan B" moments this trip. Yesterday on the trip back from Lop Buri as I was watching the countryside go by, I noticed that the railroad crossings all had crossing guards. They carried little flags, one red and one green. And there were often manual gates that they apparently moved whenever there was a train coming. It was an odd juxtaposition considering that in Lop Buri, only a few minutes away, I found shops with the latest electronic gadgets, several places that offered Internet access and the latest Playstation games, and a host of other modern conveniences. But on the railroad there was still a lot of

Another day visiting ruins and learning about Thai history. This morning I got on a train to Lop Buri, about an hour north of Ayuthaya and with a number of ruins, although nothing like the volume found here. At one time, the king thought he'd make Lop Buri sort of his home away from home. So there is big ruin of the king's palace, along with a number of smaller sites that were home to some wats and other buildings. Lop Buri is quite a bit smaller than Ayuthaya and more manageable. Also not very many tourists so it was much harder to find people who could understand me. Even when I said the name of the town I'd get blank stares. The Thai language is very subtle. At least it is for my very heavy, thick tongue. I discovered that if I just say "Ayuthaya" no one knows what the hell I'm talking about, but if I say "Ayuthayahhhhhhhhh" they get it. And I have to make sure that my voice goes up on the last syllable. My adventure today was when I got to the r